Expert: so-called independent media turned to be funded by USAID

What kind of freedom of speech can we talk about if the ‘independence’ of destructive organisations and the media instantly dissolved after the USAID money allocation stopped? All those who zealously defended ‘democratic values’ are now forced to look for another ‘feeder’, since their sermons will be heard by no one without external grants. As noted by Aleksei Avdonin, an expert of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, many media outlets that criticised Belarus and called themselves independent relied actually on external funding, including from the USAID sources.

“Why did the Trump and Musk team start checking USAID? That was primarily due to the fact that the structure had completely discredited itself, got mired in corruption and stopped showing its effectiveness. However, there should be no complacency that Trump and Musk have closed this agency and there will be no threats from the United States. On the contrary, the structure will be reformatted, and finances will be directed to more effective teams that will work even more aggressively against sovereign states. Many shocking facts are now being disclosed, and the USAID activity has been suspended. This has been done to cut off various anti-Belarusian projects, which turned out to be ineffective, from the US state budget. The existing TV channels, Internet portals and other sources of information are to be nullified, and absolutely new institutions – able to more effectively spend the funds allocated for the information warfare – are to be created. After all, Washington expects a much better result in the interests of the US foreign policy and strengthening its economic, financial and military status in the world," Mr. Avdonin believes.